


crooked

by 4cky



Category: Nameless: The one thing you must recall
Genre: Drabble, F/M, First Meetings, Pre-Game(s), mostly Tei's POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 20:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5942263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4cky/pseuds/4cky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the first time Eri met Tei.</p>
            </blockquote>





	crooked

The first thing he thinks he remembers of his owner, the one who called herself Eri when nagging herself, was his own fear. Or perhaps it wasn’t fear, dolls can’t really have emotions, can they? But there was something about it that reminded him of fear. He was worthless, dirty; he knew this, he understood it. Yet, she bought him anyways. What sort of strange person would purchase damaged goods?

She opened the box, and he could hear (perceive? the biology of dolls was a curious thing) her fingers desperately digging through the packing materials when they brushed against him. The frantic pace stopped, and she gently pulled him out of the box. This new owner was not terribly impressive upon first look, he supposed; her hair was a mess and her ribbon was crooked on her uniform. But when she looked at him, she had an emotion in her eyes that he couldn’t recognize, her mouth hanging open a little, and he was concerned her next reaction would be rejection, disgust, something like that, though he expected it. 

But she didn’t. 

Her face split into a grin. Her fingers (no gloves, finger oils could damage him, and while this seemed wrong, it also felt correct) brushed against his face, brushing his hair out of the way, then smoothing it with her thumb. “Hello Tei, it’s nice to meet you,” she said softly, and it was the most wonderful sound he’d ever experienced. She pulled him onto her lap and held him like that, her head on top of his, for what felt like an eternity. Rocking back and forth, she whispered (to him, even if she didn’t realize it), “I’m so happy. You’re just as wonderful as I imagined.”

He thought he was dreaming, that was the only way that any of this made sense. But he’d rather dream of this, of someone adoring him, than face a reality where he was broken, even if he didn’t deserve it. 

But she touches his knee, his damaged part, the cracked and broken part of him, and he wants to die. He wants her to die. Tei wanted to destroy himself, and her, and some small quiet part of him was glad he was only a doll. She rolls up his pantsleg, and if he were human, if he were able, he would have choked the life out of her then and there. Eri inspects it, and he hopes that she smashes his head on the coffee table, at least that would be quick. But no, she pulls something out of her breast pocket, some strange cloth and metal contraption, and slips it up his leg and over his knee, like she was changing his socks. “Hm… I don’t know how well it’ll work but that should stabilize the joint,” she mumbles to herself, moving the joint millimeter by millimeter up and down, carefully listening.

She smiles, apparently satisfied, as she pulls the pantsleg back down. She hugs him again, her beating heart next to his hollow doll chest. He thinks that maybe, there’s still some part of him upset with her, if he feels at all, but she looks so beautiful when she’s happy that he forgives her. And she was right, there’s no more of that sickening hollow rattle when she moves him, even if it is only a bandage on a broken dam. 

He is uncertain what love is, if he’s ever felt it. But he thinks that soft, hollow noise of her heart reverberating near his chest must be something like it.


End file.
